Possible spoilers - ancient ruins everywhere

[Kalinas]

Eorzea is pretty much built on dead civilizations. As we find out more each patch...I can't help but wonder what they looked like at their height of power.

What did Allagan cities and the Empire look like when Syrcus Tower was new? We see Amdapor and will soon see Mhach, but I want to see them when they were at their peaks and not in ruins. Then we have Nym. I'm a sucker for floating cities. I need to see it before the plague. In the Shroud, there are the underground Gelmorra ruins. Then there was Sil'dih with its amazing aqueducts and the tease from the monk cutscene. Then we have the Churning Mists and Zenith. There is the stonework buildings in Azys Lla. I want to see Sharlayan cities not in rubble like hinterlands.

What did all of these cities look like when they were alive and thriving? I'd like more details. What did they wear? What race were they? I want maps. Maybe some artwork. Def more lore (can't wait for the book). Visiting them would be ideal though. I never got to play xi, but time travel like I read about in Wings of the Goddess would be amazing. :3

The best/annoying part of this is....the XIV team still has the rest of Hydaelyn to show us. I don't know how many others are like me and just want more info. I just hope they give us some closure on what they already have shown us. I mean the allagan stuff is still slowly being pieced together after 2.5 years now. :P

Do we have a collection of this info anywhere? I really wish the Great Gubal Library had a non-dungeon entrance for reading up on lore...

[Enkidoh]

The artbook is actually a good place to start, as the art team often creates concept artwork of now-ruined structures of what they looked like 'when new' - this helps with the modelling phase in order to make the placement of rubble and the like consistent and realistic - but it also gives you a sneak peak at what those civilizations were actually like hundreds or thousands of years ago.

For instance, the artbook The Art of Eorzea ~ Another Dawn features concept art of the Crystal Tower at the height of the Allag (it looked... much the same as it does now, albeit it was also surrounded by a high colonnaded perimeter wall, remnants of which are being dug up in Saint Coinach's Find by the time of ARR), and concept art of the Wanderer's Palace showing it at the height of Nym with all it's spires and catwalks intact.

Other than that, a lot of the information you mentioned is deliberately vague because each Calamity has been such a devastating blow to current civilization as to function effectively as a sort of 'cultural reset button', destroying everything current and sending then contemporary Eorzean civilization reeling, and often resulting in knowledge about the previous civilizations being lost to the ages (there is a certain irony here with the most recent Calamity... not actually being anywhere near as destructive as the previous ones had been - it devastated Eorzea but did not destroy the current citystates but only made them regroup and strengthen.).

Either way, no doubt the history behind the many civiliaztions that have risen and fallen throughout Eorzea's long history will be revealed as time goes by.

[Belhi]

There is also a 300 page lore book that is coming out later this year which will probably shed a lot of light onto what is known about civilisations of previous eras and will apparently have some art in it that hasn't been published before.

When it comes out I suspect we will have a lot to talk about.

[Chewy2nd]

I kind of imagine parts of Allag to look like Eden from XIII, we see a lot of those neon lights but usually in the more military sectors, Syrcus didn't have the usual Allag hallmarks for example. It kind of makes me wonder what Garlemald will look like.

[fm_fenrir]

(there is a certain irony here with the most recent Calamity... not actually being anywhere near as destructive as the previous ones had been - it devastated Eorzea but did not destroy the current citystates but only made them regroup and strengthen.).

This made me wonder if the reason Hydaelyn's power has been waning with each A/U cycle is because the Calamities have been returning less and less aether to her (due to lower death counts with each event). The Bahamut Calamity didn't really do all that much damage, and Hydaelyn is at her weakest to date...

[ADVSS]

welllllllll there is asyz lla. the coil of bahamut to give references but of course this was all based on allagan tech, areas like the research facility have that theme and similar design appearance so I can only imagine that a lot of the well developed parts would possibly fit that thematic. The Crystal tower, though seems to sort of clash in concordance to the neon lines everywhere, clockwork guards, etc theme. So much so, as to be similar as the church of sephirot seemingly built by some other race or species and brought over .

[Chewy2nd]

I think that the Seventh Umbral Calamity may have intended to have been on of the last, if not THE last calamity. Louisoix actually partially prevented the calamity, it was likely intended for Bahamut to raze Eorzea, Garlemald and the world at large to smouldering ruins, like every calamity preceding.

[WhiteArchmage]

On the "calamities giving eather back to Hydaelin" I think it's more about "ascian-engineered calamities (so, all of them) taking aether from Hydaelin and giving it to Zodiark"

As for the "what races they were" we can guess and inferr based on their contemporaries. From the names in Qarn, we can deduce that they were ruled by Lalafells, and Shatotto (Mhach) is also a lalafellin name (plus, ShaNtotto is a Taru). Ul'Dah was ruled by the Thorne dynasty which were hyur and afterwards by the Lalallelin Ul', Lalas. We're not too sure about the Amdapori, but the Gelmorrans would be predominantly elezen. And Surito Carito from Nym is also obviously a lalafell (ok, lalafell turned tonberry, whatever). Until we get the Lore book, most of what we can do are educated guesses.

[Belhi]

I think that the Seventh Umbral Calamity may have intended to have been on of the last, if not THE last calamity. Louisoix actually partially prevented the calamity, it was likely intended for Bahamut to raze Eorzea, Garlemald and the world at large to smouldering ruins, like every calamity preceding.

Techincally he didn't stop the calamity but he mitigated it heavily. Bahamut was sucking the Aether out of the land and in defeating Bahamut, Louisoix returned a great deal of Aether to the land giving it its 'Rebirth' as was his nature at the time. Without his intervention the damage would have been far greater and far more widespread.

[Enkidoh]

On the "calamities giving eather back to Hydaelin" I think it's more about "ascian-engineered calamities (so, all of them) taking aether from Hydaelin and giving it to Zodiark"

As for the "what races they were" we can guess and inferr based on their contemporaries. From the names in Qarn, we can deduce that they were ruled by Lalafells, and Shatotto (Mhach) is also a lalafellin name (plus, ShaNtotto is a Taru). Ul'Dah was ruled by the Thorne dynasty which were hyur and afterwards by the Lalallelin Ul', Lalas. We're not too sure about the Amdapori, but the Gelmorrans would be predominantly elezen. And Surito Carito from Nym is also obviously a lalafell (ok, lalafell turned tonberry, whatever). Until we get the Lore book, most of what we can do are educated guesses.

Although you're on the right track, there are a couple of points that can be raised and touched on - Ul'dah's ruling dynasty (as in, it's rightful ruler) has always been lalafellian (dunesfolk in particular), specifically the Ul dynasty. Baldric Thorne was actually an upsurper to the throne and his hyuran dynasty barely lasted a century before the rightful house of Ul was restored. So basically apart from the brief break with the Thorne dynasty, Ul'dah has always been ruled by the Ul dynasty (after all, it's even in the citystate's very name, Ul'dah ), although given Nanamo being the last of her line and a surviving distant descendant of Baldric Thorne being found.... whether the House of Ul can long endure remains to be seen.

And it's not entirely clear, but there is a possibility of Gelmorra also having hyuran connections (a clue is the flag of Gridania with it's symbolism in the two entwined serpents representing the hyur and elezen uniting to form the nation, had a predecessor in Gelmorra's crest (most clearly seen in the Tam Tara Deepcroft) which closely resembles the Gridania flag, albeit with some slight differences. So, if the twin serpents represent the elezen and hyur on Gridania's flag, is there the possibility that was also the symbolism behind Gelmorra's flag as well, and Gridania merely continued that symbolism? It's an interesting idea that could be raised with a certain ahriman in any event.